The Tejeri Hearthlands
Created by /u/TechnicolorTraveler The Tejeri Hearthlands GEOGRAPHY: Deep waters between roughly 3,000 to 7,000 meters, though the higher elevations are dangerous and life threatening without some magical or mechanical support. The Hearthlands are mainly wide stretches of deep open ocean with urban centers growing within systems of volcanic caves and ravines, sharp pillared mountain ranges, and well excavated, expanded, and utilized volcanic vents. Tube fish, crustaceans, deep sea cephalopods and fish are abundant, cultivated, and encouraged to thrive across every available shelf. BIOLOGY/ETHNICITY: The people of Tejeri are an ancient people. They are mermaid-like black and red humanoids known as the Ophon. They are cold blooded deep sea aquatics that live around the deep sea hydrothermal vents and whale-fall areas that are abundant in the region. They lay a clutch of forty eggs every other year, usually four hatch on average, but only one or two actually survive. Ophon have a snake-like heat sense as well as a mild electromagnetic sense with the whole lateral lines and sensory pits fish and snakes poses. Ophon also have large eyes and large ear-fins, but, unusually, a poor sense of smell. Ophon are completely carnivorous. They must hunt and kill soon after birth or starve and many Ophon hunt or raise livestock for a living. Because their quirk uses a lot of their energy, they actually usually spend a lot of spare time sleeping, and have a high metabolism and high dietary requirements. Racial Quirk: The Ophon are colloquially known as the “fire fish”. They have an extremely high heat tolerance and resistance that has allowed them to harness their hydrothermal vents and pockets of lava deep within the Trench in their homeland. They can also generate intense heat, mainly from the stripes of specialized skin across their bodies and within their mouths. They can’t melt steel beams, but they can cook meat and boil the water around them. These stripes also produce a faint amount of non-bioluminescent light that helps them see each other in the darkness. Their skin is impossible to make into leather and if they could ever reach the surface, they could probably set things on fire with a prolonged touch. HISTORY: Though modernized, it is still mainly small clans spread around the pockets of civilization where hydrothermal vents are located. They once lived in a very war-like period, constant fighting, now the stuff of myths and romance novels. Group of wealthy clans in a resource rich volcanic cave system (now the capital region of Zand Ek) allied together to conquer the other regions. The wars of unification were bloody, savage, and ultimately successful. What hindered them for so long were the long stretches of open ocean between clans that effectively were desert barriers. But the rise of deep sea transport machinery (more on that later) as well as an increase in trade caravans during the previous Period of Prosperity helped create known routes to and from clans that the union exploited. Though the Hearthlands boast of being a unified nation, the Remaha Hearthlands are fiercely independent and refuse to recognize Hearthland rule. Though the situation is complicated and “technically at peace” their history is one filled with animosity and attempts by the main nation to force them to be more “Hearthlands like”. SOCIETY: The Hearthlands are mainly a sort of magocracy. Mages often show their abilities very early on through “The ritual of vials” (more on that later). Magical children are believed to be blessed by nature and marked as its heralds, and so are raised to fill positions of power. Regional lords and the “Lord of Lords” are almost always mages. The Hearthlands are ruled by a council of regional lords with a quasi religious figurehead who’s main occupation is to act as arbiter and unified voice of the lords. The *Sai en’Saieg* (lord of lords in the Ophon language) is elected by the lords among the most respected mages after the passing of the last figurehead. Besides the leadership and the mages, most Ophon live in cities formed around hydrothermal vent areas or in the vast agricultural areas, hunting game and raising livestock in the higher ocean elevations. More on social structures and mobility later. CULTURE: Ophons are a passionate and loyal people, with a deep respect for their nation, their people, and their land. Children are born in large clutches of eggs and gathered into state-run schools, so they do not have a strong familial bond, but have a strong “brothers in arms” sort of attitude to their fellows and are generally very communal and affectionate. This is bolstered by the mandatory military service all Ophons must do before “graduation”. These people also revere their mages and scholars and have a sort of romanticism of the “sojourners” - those who travel beyond the Hearthland to survive on their own in the wilds of the world and find enlightenment through exploration, study, and contemplation. The world of the Hearthlands is a dangerous place full of sea monsters, “deep giants”, strange things only known in myth and legend outside the cities Tejeri has built around the vents. They are cautious of the unknown, but also have a rabid curiosity of it borne from artifacts and tales of above and beyond brought in by sojourners and nomadic whales. OCCURRENCE OF MAGIC: Magic is a bit rare. It only occurs in about 1 in 5,000 people and is divided into several elements: Heat, Water, Earth, and Aether. Water mages get their source from the ocean and their “herald” is the simple jellyfish. These mages manipulate water and can alter its density and temperature as well as move and manipulate it. Earth’s source is “the bottom” (all land) and their herald is The Ann Akala Trench. Earth mages can move earth and “see through it” in the sense of being able to detect vibrations far away and detect the elemental composition of stone through years of study. The element of Aether gets its source from the leylines and its herald is the rare hydrothermal vents along leylines that sustain magical creatures. Aether mages can manipulate air to a degree, but also detect and see through the leylines and - with difficulty- concentrate some of it and pull magical energy from it. Heat’s “source” is said to be life itself, and it’s “herald” is “The Far Light” (the sun). Heat mages are the most mystical of the four and are said to be able to harness and utilize the race’s natural abilities tenfold (they can melt steel beams). They’ve never seen fire above water, though if they went there they would produce it rather than just powerful heat. Mages are generally respected and revered and they work mainly in governance and the scientific and technological fields. MAJOR EXPORTS/IMPORTS: Imports: wood, meat, technology, jewelry, foreign finished goods, plant products, etc. Exports: Sea tempered steel (made with a bit of leyline magic and secret forging techniques), iron, magnesium, good, silver, glass, zinc, and calcium, leather, meat, whale and sea beast bones, crab ivory (expect a fauna post later), burned leather books and scrolls, pearls, jewelry, finished goods. POSTS The Tejeri Hearthlands Meeting of the Council of Lords Another Meeting in the Halls of Zand Ek The History of Ophon Transportation The History of the Tejeri Script For The Adventure of a Lifetime Tejeri Chemical Arms Ophon Biology Tidbits and Other Interesting Information Fish to Squirrels: We Come in Peace... For Your Guns The Great Traveling Deep Sea Surkus Troupe, Now at a Shore Near You The States of the Tejeri Hearthlands and it’s Political Parties When The Blessed Council Chamber Became a War Room GoldenTail and Golden Tales to the Great Ports of Sitaar From Fish to Birds Sending Up a Letter The Boiling Waters Below The Tejer-El’luul Agreement and Recognition of Sovereign Waters Remember the Akagi Maru! Ophon Theology Let Loose the Dogs of War! More Bodily Adaptations of the Ophon People The Ophon and Their Hair Breaking the Etranian Blockade The Battles Above and Below Returning Home to a Very Different Place Taken The End of the War The New Tejer: Reforms in the Decade Since the End of the Therion War Lights to Change the World A Ruinous Discovery The Therion Grand Embassy